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Thursday, June 2, 2011

OR

As some of you may have guessed, we slipped out of town for a little vacation on the long weekend. We flew out to Oregon to visit my parents for the weekend and we had a blast. Sadly, I took maybe a total of 2 pictures the entire time we were there (and none of those pictures were of people). I'm kind of sporadic when it comes to taking pictures of events. Sometimes I go all-out. Most of the time I decide to just enjoy the moment and skip dealing with the camera. Lame? Perhaps. Do I have regrets about it? Ehh... not really.

I grew up in Oregon and, besides seeing my parents star as elves in the high school production of The Hobbit (they teach at the high school and they were invited to be in the play), I had a few things in mind I wanted to do while we were there.

Number one on my list was to go through all the boxes of my stuff that I've been storing at my parents' house for the past few years. The goal was to narrow it down to just the stuff I wanted to keep and then recycle, throw away, or donate the rest. In other words, my goal was to get all my stuff out of their house so they could enjoy the space for their own things. I am happy to say that this was accomplished! Five big trash bags, several boxes of recycling, and one full car of donated stuff later, we whittled things down to five or 6 boxes to keep and an awesome play kitchen. My parents are being super nice to deliver it to us later this summer when they come to visit our new place and then it will be out of their house for good! Hooray hooray.

Olivia and Bryan on our visit to the Oregon Zoo back in 2010

Number two on my list was the Oregon Zoo. If you live in the Portland area and haven't been to the zoo yet you are seriously missing out. It wasn't until I moved away from home and visited a few other zoos that I came to fully appreciate just how awesome the Oregon Zoo is. It has loads of wonderful animals, the landscaping and animal cages are beautiful, and there are lots of fun things for kids to climb on and play with. And did I mention that it's huge? We were there for a few hours and really only scratched the surface on all there was to see and do. But Olivia got to see the baby achoo (read: elephant) and ride the MAX train on the way in, so it was a successful trip all around.

Number three on my list was Powell's Books. This place is a book palace. While we were there my mom was bragging to me that it's one of the largest bookstores in the world (is that right, Mom?) where they sell new and used copies of the same book right next to each other on the shelves. Awesome, right? Bryan and I took in a few random books that we found in my boxes of stuff and made $12 of in-store credit (also good for their online store). Sah-weeeet! I really don't know how to describe this place except to say that it's incredible. The store fills an entire city block in downtown Portland and carries just about anything you can think of. It's also stocked with lots of great Portlandesque trinkets to buy. If you're in the area, you really must stop in.

Number four on my list was Muno's Bakery in Oregon City. While I'm still disappointed that they stopped selling the teddy bear cookies they used to make when I was a kid, this place does hold a special place in my heart. We were in a bit of a hurry when we stopped in this time so we just parked in front and ran in, but usually we'll park at the top of the bluff and ride the municipal elevator down. Always great fun. And if you ride the elevator down you get to walk past all the other little old timey shops down there.

If we had been in town longer I would have tried to squeeze in more of my favorite places, but we were only there for a few days and were barely able to do all of those things in between spending time with family and friends. But we had a great time! It was so fun to get away for the weekend and see everybody there. Thanks for having us Oregon!

This is slightly crazy, but you sat behind my sister in law, and across from us on your flight from SLC! I thought it might be you and your family, but I was chicken and didn't say hi or anything. I love your blog though! I found it through some feature on another a few months back! Hope you had a great vacation.